Audacious Change
VidaAfrolatina Partners Attest to Colombian Black Vice President’s Consequential Impact
By Indhira Suero Acosta
December 6, 2024
Center in white blouse: Colombian Vice President Francia Márquez. Far right in brown jacket: VidaAfrolatina grantee partner Bibiana Peñaranda. To the left and right of photo: logos of VidaAfrolatina’s Colombian grantee partners. PHOTO: @ViceColombia
Cali, the Latin American city with the second largest Black population after Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, is an epicenter of anti-racist movements. There, on August 7, 2022, thousands of people celebrated a short, humble woman from Yolombó. In this small town, in the midst of violence perpetrated by armed groups, impoverished women experiencing racial discrimination had never dared to dream of achieving power.
Francia Márquez ignited the celebration by becoming the first Black vice president of Colombia.
Vallenatos, cumbias, mapalé, currulao, and other rhythms from the Pacific coast, where the country’s Black population is concentrated, were blaring in Cali’s streets. This is how Kenia Luna remembers it. She is the founder of AfroYoga, a nonprofit organization that uses yoga as a tool to support mental health from a Black feminist perspective.
“Everyone was playing music with the volume cranked up high. It was a dream moment. Similar to, but also completely opposite of, the social explosion,” Luna recalls, referring to the series of protests between 2019 and 2021, considered the most important demonstrations in Colombia’s history. “A way of coming together, no longer to fight, but to celebrate that the fight was worth it.”
Colombia’s African descendants face numerous social and political gaps. Black women have higher rates of unemployment and violence, according to a United Nations report. In a nation where nearly half of Márquez’s racial group – 48% – live in poverty, becoming the first Black vice president, and the first woman vice president of any race, represents a rupture in the racism, classism, and sexism present in Colombian politics.
Márquez, never subtle as an activist before running for office, continues to assert herself through unprecedented actions in this role. Highlights include leading the creation of the Ministry of Equality and Equity and supporting the emergence of the non-governmental organization Baobab Center for Innovation in Ethnic-Racial, Gender, and Environmental Justice. According to Luna, there are more resources and opportunities for artists and cultural managers. In addition, the Vice President is championing a boom in entrepreneurship.
When Márquez took the oath of office, Colombia was reborn. Even so, Luna believes that racism was strengthened, evident in the relentless mockery of Márquez in the media. “There is a lot of discrimination, and that hurts because if it is directed towards her, I feel it is directed towards me.”
Vision
In 2020, Emilia Eneyda Valencia, founder of the Association of Afro-Colombian Women (AMAFROCOL), was taking a class with Márquez when she announced she wanted to be president. (Márquez launched a campaign for president before becoming presidential candidate Gustavo Petro’s running mate). For Valencia, it was a joke. Two years later, Márquez’s arrival in government was a pivotal event.
Like Luna, Valencia feels offended by the constant racist attacks against Márquez. Several assassination attempts against the vice president and her family have been thwarted. “Whiteness does not accept that one of us occupies that position,” says Valencia. “They put all the barriers in place so that she does not carry out projects in favor of Black people.”
Valencia hopes that Márquez will create a National Plan for Historical Reparations to repair the damage caused by colonialism and Indigenous genocide. The effects of colonialism are what led Márquez to become an activist at 13. Years later, in 2018, she was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize after organizing a local campaign to stop illegal mining in the Black community of La Toma.
Together
Yaneth Valencia is the founder of the Lila Mujer Association, an organization for women with HIV in Cali. Her eyes fill with tears as she talks about Márquez. “She is someone I walked with,” she says.
Márquez is raising the Afro-Colombian profile internationally and is strengthening African diaspora connections, as evidenced by her visits to African countries to meet with heads of state and promote diplomatic, political, commercial, and cultural exchanges through her “Africa and Colombia Strategy 2022 – 2026.”
“It is necessary that we recognize ourselves internationally. Make that inventory of those who bet on her with sincerity,” says the health advocate.
Also, thanks to Márquez’s leadership, on August 13, 2024, the United Nations approved a resolution proclaiming July 25 as the International Day of Women and Girls of African Descent. The Coordination of Displaced Afro-Colombian Women in Resistance (La COMADRE) has been empowering Afro-Colombian women victims of Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict for more than 20 years. La COMADRE activist Shaendris Becerra believes that Márquez’s arrival to the vice presidency symbolizes that many more people recognize that the voices of Black women matter.
Moment
Andrea Moreno co-leads Casa Cultural El Chontaduro, a community organization working for racial and gender justice in eastern Cali for 38 years.
Moreno believes that despite her achievements the fact that Márquez occupies her position as vice president “means coming face to face with hope, but also means recognizing a racist society in which, if there is a minimum of dignity in the life of a Black person, they always find a way to justify that they do not deserve to be in that place.”
She is concerned about the possible setback when Márquez’s term ends. “We think about what will happen and how we could intercede to prevent this work that has begun from being lost,” reflects Moreno.
Luna, from AfroYoga, shares this concern. “I don’t know what would happen to our freedoms if a right-wing government comes into power.”
But for now, the first Black vice president of Colombia has two years left in her term and several dreams to fulfill. Luna, Emilia Valencia, Yaneth Valencia, Becerra and Moreno agree that Márquez has already achieved the strengthening of the Black feminist movement. Affirms Moreno, “There is much more strength and hope for Black women.”
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VIDEO: The speech of Vice President-elect Francia Márquez
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Indhira Suero Acosta is a cultural journalist, columnist, broadcaster, press analyst and university professor. She is also the creator of the Negrita Come Coco, a character that promotes popular Dominican culture and uses humor to combat stereotypes, discrimination and prejudice against Afro-descendant people throughout the diaspora.
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